Not only was Syl Apps one of the greatest players of his era, but he was also an Olympian and a Member of the Provincial Parliament in Ontario. To many, he was the Jean Beliveau of English Speaking Canada.
A life well lived.
And today we are going to explore his life.
Syl Apps was born Charles Joseph Sylvanus Apps on Jan. 18, 1915 in Paris, Ontario.
A gifted athlete, he quickly grew to stand six feet tall with a solid frame of 185 pounds. His parents were upper-middle class, with his father operating a drug store. Each winter, Apps mother flooded a stretch of the alley near the family home so Apps could skate.
As a child, Apps was good at nearly everything. He dominated in golf, hockey, football and track and field. Even academically he did well, becoming his high school valedictorian.
He said years later,
“We had more fun in the small towns than kids do today. There weren’t as many distractions. I can remember in Paris, all we would do all summer long is play different sports.”
When he was 19, he competed at the 1934 British Empire Games in the pole vault where he won gold.
Two years later, he was at the Summer Olympics in Berlin where he placed sixth. Apps said,
“We saw Hitler on occasions but we didn’t pay much attention. We were so happy just to be able to participate, we weren’t too worried about politics.”
As a young man, he studied Economics at McMaster University. It was there he played football and was seen for the first time by Conn Smythe. Smythe didn’t just show up randomly, he had heard about the athletic abilities of Apps from many people, and decided to see for himself.
Smythe was impressed by the athleticism of Apps and rushed to a telegraph office to fire off a wire to the NHL playing Apps on the Leafs’ negotiation list.
He wanted to make sure he signed him to play hockey for the Toronto Maple Leafs. At first Apps didn’t want to sign, as he believed professional athletes were not looked upon well by others. In the end, he decided he would play professional hockey as he wanted to marry and start a family and the income would help.
The Sault Star wrote,
“Highest scoring forward in Ontario Amateur Hockey last winter, Apps is the apple of Manager Conny Smythe’s eye. Promoters of British amateur teams made a real try to sign Apps in London. Syl didn’t nibble.”
In 1936, at the age of 21, Apps took to the ice with the Maple Leafs for the first time. Playing centre, he wore #10.
In October 1936, Apps picked up a new nickname thanks to trainer Tim Daly, Apes.
The Toronto Star wrote,
“One of the players came into the dressing room and asked Tim what particular part of the room would be his. ‘Now let’s see’, Tim said as he started reading off the names scribbled in chalk along the dressing room wall. ‘There’s Clancy, and Horner, and Apes.’ But that was as far as he got. The other boys in the room hadn’t missed it. And so for the rest of the day, Syl was known as Apes. And the nickname is likely to stick.”
The name didn’t stick, but Apps immediately had a positive impact on the team that was at its height.
After winning the Stanley Cup in 1932, the team finished first in 1932-33, 1933-34 and 1934-35. Two out of three of those seasons, the team made it to the Stanley Cup Final, only to lose.
The team also reached the Stanley Cup Final in 1935-36.
When Apps joined the team, the Maple Leafs were hoping to return to hockey glory. In his first season, he had 45 points in 48 games and won the Calder Trophy. He was the first member of the Maple Leafs to win the trophy which had only been established a few years earlier in 1932-33. Apps also finished first on the team in scoring, and second in the league in scoring, only one point behind Sweeney Schriner of the New York Americans. In 2005, The Hockey News ranked his rookie season as the tenth greatest in NHL history.
That season, the team finished in third place, their worst showing since 1929-30. While the Maple Leafs made the playoffs, they lost in the first round to the New York Rangers.
Apps improved on his play from his rookie season in 1937-38 when he had 50 points in 47 games, the second highest point total of his career. It placed him second on the team in scoring behind Gordie Drillon, who had 52.
That season he was selected to the NHL Second All-Star Team as the Maple Leafs finished first in the Canadian division and reached the Stanley Cup Final where they lost three games to one to the Chicago Black Hawks. In the playoffs, Apps had five points in seven games.
In 1938-39, Apps finished with 40 points in 44 games, first on the team, as the Maple Leafs finished third but made the Stanley Cup Final where they lost to the Boston Bruins four games to one. In the playoffs, Apps had eight points in ten games.
That year he was named to the NHL First All-Star Team.
The point total for Apps slipped in 1939-40 when he had 30 points in 27 games, the lowest point total of his entire NHL career but good enough for second on the team. The Maple Leafs again finished third in the Canadian Division but made the Stanley Cup Final. This time they lost four games to two to the New York Rangers but Apps led the team in playoff scoring with seven points in 10 games.
In 1940-41, Apps finished with 44 points in 41 games, good enough to be on the NHL Second All-Star Team. He was still unable to lead the Maple Leafs to glory though, as they exited the playoffs in the first round. That season, he was also named captain of the Maple Leafs.
That year, he ran in the federal election as a candidate with the National Government Party. He lost to Liberal incumbent by only 138 votes.
The 1941-42 season was a banner one for Apps and the Maple Leafs. While he had 41 points in 38 games, having missed 10 games due to injury and was named to the NHL First All-Star Team. Even though he missed those 10 games, he still led the team in scoring with Gordie Drillon, who played in 12 more games.
He also won the Lady Byng Trophy for gentlemanly play. That season, despite playing in 38 games, he did not register a single penalty minute. The Maple Leafs finished with 62 points, their second highest total in history to that point.
In the playoffs, the Maple Leafs defeated the New York Rangers four games to two in the first round and then captured the Stanley Cup in a seven game series against the Detroit Red Wings. This Stanley Cup win was even more amazing as the team was down three games to none against the Red Wings. They were able to roar back and win four straight games to capture the Stanley Cup. They remain the only team in NHL history to overcome a three games to none deficit in the Stanley Cup Final.
Apps led the team in scoring with 14 points in 13 games.
In 1942-43, Apps played in only 29 games as he chose to enlist to fight in the Second World War. Despite his shortened season, he still managed to have 40 points in 29 games and finished fifth on the team in scoring.
Throughout his career, Apps was known for his athleticism, character and play-making abilities. Conn Smythe called Apps the greatest player in Leafs history. Jack Adams, who managed the Red Wings, called Apps the greatest centre he had ever seen. Both Milt Schmidt and Ted Lindsay, two long-time opponents on the ice, called him the best player they ever played against.
The Hockey News said about him,
“Syl Apps was a saint. The iconic Maple Leaf never drank, smoked or swore. And on the ice, he was just as gentlemanly.”
Sport Magazine said of him,
“In the National Hockey League where most players act as though they were candidates for a job in a slaughterhouse, Sylvanus Apps is as out of place as an orchid on a hamburger.”
The man who succeeded him as captain on the Leafs would call him as fine a man who ever lived.
The Toronto Star wrote of him,
“Central casting couldn’t have conceived a more athletic looking figure if it was looking for someone to star in one of those outrageous melodramas that used to be fodder for the old movie matinees. With his husky physique, ruddy good looks, aw-shucks grin and modest, pure-as-the-driven-snow lifestyle, Apps was a flesh and blood model of the stainless fictional merriwells.”
Still in the prime of his career, Apps served in the Canadian Army for two years until the war was over.
He returned to the Maple Leafs for the 1945-46 season and was immediately named captain once again. Apps also showed he had lost of his magic when he had 40 points in 40 games, good for third on the team. The team, despite winning the Stanley Cup the year before, finished in fifth with 19 wins and 24 losses. They did not qualify for the playoffs, the first and only time in Apps time with the Maple Leafs that they did not play in the playoffs.
The team rebounded the following season, finishing second in the NHL with 31 wins and 19 losses. Apps finished second on the team behind Ted Kennedy with 49 points in 54 games. In the playoffs, as the Maple Leafs won the Stanley Cup, he added another six points in 11 games.
In 1947-48, Apps had one of his best seasons when he led the team in goals, assists and points. His 53 points in 55 games was his highest point total of his career. Apps finished eighth in the league in scoring.
He added another eight points in nine games as the Maple Leafs went on to win their second straight Stanley Cup.
Apps decided that it was time to go out on top, and he chose to retire following the season despite only being 33. He had told Smythe earlier he was going to retire, he just wanted to hit 200 goals first. That season, he reached 201 goals for his career thanks to a hat trick in the final game of the season.
Smythe offered Apps a blank cheque to return to the team and Apps agreed. That changed when he heard Ted Kennedy had been named captain. Apps didn’t want to cause any issue with that by returning, so he stayed retired.
He said,
“The decision that I made to leave hockey wasn’t because I didn’t think I was capable of it. It was because I wondered what I was doing with myself.”
Thus ended one of the most legendary careers in Maple Leafs history.
In 423 games in the NHL, he had 432 points. He had over 40 points six times in his career, and scored 20 goals or more six times in his career.
In his regular season career, he only had 56 penalty minutes, amounting to only one penalty every seven and a half games.
In the playoffs, he added 54 points in 67 games, with 14 penalty minutes.
To many, Apps was the first radio superstar in the NHL thanks to the play-by-play calls by Foster Hewitt. Some of those who cheered the loudest for Apps likely never saw him play.
The year after he retired, he was named Canadian Father of the Year. Apps gave the $1,000 cheque he received to charity.
On Sept. 20, 1948, a dinner was held for the Maple Leafs where Apps’ made his retirement official. The Toronto Star wrote,
“Conn Smythe, the team’s managing director, also paid tribute to Apps. In accepting an oil painting, Apps said he intended to devote most of his time to his new position with a department store but was glad to continue relations with the team by coaching its junior farm club Toronto Marlboros.”
After he left hockey, he took a marketing job with Simpson’s Department Store and served as the Ontario Athletic Commissioner.
In 1961, Apps was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame.
In 1963, Apps ran as a Progressive Conservative in the Ontario Provincial election and won his riding with 49.11 per cent of the vote and over 10,000 votes.
He would serve in the Legislature for the next 12 years. During that time, he was the Minister of Correctional Services from 1971 to 1974.
Apps said,
“I enjoyed my three years at the ministry but 12 years in politics was a long time.”
In 1975, he was inducted into Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame and two years later, received the Order of Canada.
In the mid-1980s, the sporting career for Apps, including golfing, came to an end when he was hit by a degenerative nerve disease. It was never truly diagnosed, but was similar, if less severe, than ALS. His daughter Grace said,
“it was a gradual degeneration of the conducting nerves which caused the loss of the use of his legs and seriously affected eye-hand coordination and speech.”
In April 1982, Apps was hit by two tragedies. First, his wife Mary died of cancer. The couple had been married for almost 50 years. Soon after she died, his sister Yvonne died.
By the mid-1980s, Apps stated that hockey had changed a lot from when he played. He said,
“It appears to be that there’s so much more hooking, interference, high sticking, boarding than there used to be. The good ones, like Wayne Gretzky, have to be so much better because of this.”
In 1997, Apps was inducted into the Ontario Sports Hall of Fame. Ontario’s Athlete of the Year is also awarded the Syl Apps Award. By this point, Apps was bed-ridden and communicated through the use of a Bliss board.
On Dec. 24, 1998, Apps died of a heart attack. When he died, he had 17 grandchildren and 14 great-grandchildren. Since they lived all over Canada and the world, his funeral was delayed to ensure they could come home.
After he died, the Maple Leafs wore his number 10. The number was not retired officially at the time, but has since been retired along with 15 others.
Many in his family have gone on to great success in sports. With his wife Mary he had five children. One, Syl Apps Jr., went on to play in the NHL from 1968 to 1980 with Pittsburgh, Los Angeles and New York, recording 606 points in 727 games.
His granddaughter Gillian Apps won gold in women’s hockey at the 2006, 2010 and 2014 Winter Olympics. His other grandson Syl Apps III played hockey for Princeton, and his grandson Darren Barber won gold in rowing at the 1992 Summer Olympics.
In 2001, Canada Post honoured Apps with a stamp.
Several places are also named for Apps including the Syl and Molly Apps Research Centre in Kingston, the Syl Apps Youth Centre in Oakville, Ontario and an arena in Paris, Ontario is named the Syl Apps Community Centre.
In 2017, Apps was named one of the 100 Greatest Players to ever play in the NHL.
